This chapter is from the book

If a chapter on cropping and resizing doesn't sound exciting, really, what does? It's sad, but a good portion of our lives
is spent doing just that—cropping and resizing. Why is that? It's because nothing, and I mean nothing, is ever the right size.
Think about it. If everything were already the right size, there'd be no opportunity to “Super Size it.” You'd go to McDonald's,
order a Value Meal, and instead of hearing, “Would you care to Super Size your order?” there would just be a long uncomfortable
pause. And frankly, I'm uncomfortable enough at the McDonald's drive-thru, what with all the cropping and resizing I'm constantly
doing. Anyway, although having a chapter on cropping and resizing isn't the kind of thing that sells books (though I hear
books on crop circles do fairly well), both are important and necessary, especially if you ever plan on cropping or resizing
things in Elements. Actually, you'll be happy to learn that there's more than just cropping and resizing in this chapter.
That's right—I supersized the chapter with other cool techniques that honestly are probably a bit too cool to wind up in a
chapter called “Cropping and Resizing,” but it's the only place they'd fit. But don't let the extra techniques throw you; if this chapter seems too long to you,
flip to the end of the chapter, rip out a few pages, and you have effectively cropped the chapter down to size. (And by ripping
the pages out yourself, you have transformed what was originally a mere book into an “interactive experience,” which thereby
enhances the value of the book, making you feel like a pretty darn smart shopper.) See, it almost makes you want to read it
now, doesn't it?

Cropping Photos

After you've sorted your images in the Organizer or File Browser, one of the first editing tasks you'll probably undertake
is cropping a photo. There are a number of different ways to crop a photo in Elements. We'll start with the basic garden-variety
options, and then we'll look at some ways to make the task faster and easier.

Step One

Open the image you want to crop, and press the letter C to get the Crop tool (you could always select it directly from the
Toolbox, but I only recommend doing so if you're charging by the hour).

Step Two

Click within your photo and drag out a cropping border. The area to be cropped away will appear dimmed (shaded). You don't
have to worry about getting your cropping border right when you first drag it out, because you can edit it by dragging the
control handles that appear in each corner and at the center of each side.

If you don't like seeing your photo with the cropped-away areas appearing shaded (as in the previous step), you can toggle
this shading feature off/on by pressing the Forward Slash key (/) on your keyboard. When you press the Forward Slash key,
the border remains in place but the shading is turned off.

Step Three

While you have the crop border in place, you can rotate the entire border. Just move your cursor outside the border, and your
cursor changes into a double-headed arrow. Just click-and-drag, and the cropping border will rotate in the direction that
you drag. (This is a great way to save time if you have a crooked image, because it lets you crop and rotate at the same time.)